Hello. This is my first time buying the parts for a computer, and building it up from scratch. My first and current gaming machine is a Compaq Presario 5050 preassembled, bought in 98. I thought it's about time that I upgraded. Actually, I just got a job, and the "go ahead" from my mother, so... I spent the whole day at Newegg, and was wondering if you guys could help me out with any compatibility issues this might have. I've never done this before. I just want to get everything right before I buy.

I want to get 4 512 memory sticks, and was wondering if 2 packages of this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820145450 were good enough. My friend said that this might be the right type of memory, then the term "dual channel" was thrown in. I was lost at that point. He said it would be better to ask on a forum.

I want to use this hard drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103464In the description it say for interface "ATA 150", but the description on the motherboard says for storage devices "PATA - 2 x ATA 133 up to 4 divices. PATA RAID - NV RAID 0/1/0+1 JBOD. SATA - 4 x SATA II. SATA RAID - NV RAID 0/1/0+1 JBOD." I have no idea what any of that means, but I don't see "ATA 150" on the motherboard. Does this mean there will be a compatiblity issue?

For the power supply unit, I would like to use this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182012The graphics card I want to get said a PSU with 450 (don't know what this means) is the minimum requirement. This is really weird. I've never heard of a PSU before. And my Geforce 2 440MMX didn't saying anything about requiring a PSU. From what I learned, the PSU powers the whole computer. Is that correct? Does that mean there is a connector for the HDD, the motherboard, the cd drives and anything else that needs power? I really don't know much about this, as I've only added memory, and added my GF2 to the computer. Haven't touched anything else.

the chip you picked out is socket 754 . the motherboard you have is socket 939 . they wont work together . your hard drive link and your processor link are the same link

epox makes great motherboards in my opinion . they are the only brand of board i use anymore .

if you want the 3700+ this is the processor you actually need . its socket 939 not socket 754 .

i have those same speakers they are awsome . your parents are going to hate them

you need to pick out a pci express video card of some kind be it ati or nvidia thats really a personal prefrance thing .

also if i could ask one favor of you . when you post links please put the product description in front of or behind the link like this EPOX 9NPA+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813123236 other wise anyone that wants to reply to your post has to click on all the links . alot of us here have used or have friends who have used the products you linked to . we dont need to go to the links to tell you our opinion .

it runs at a slower clock speed than the socket 754 athlon 64 does 2.2 versus 2.4 ghz but has twice as much memory bandwidth because the memory runs in dual channel mode on the socket 939 system and it only runs in single channel mode on the socket 754 system . this is how amd gives the socket 939 system a higher rating at a lower clock speed than the socket 754 processor . everything looks good to me . i still dont see a link to your video card though . most of the new video cards require a line to be ran directly from your power supply unit ( PSU ) to your video card . if you look close in this photo you can see the power line connected to the back of my video card . its kind of hard to see because of all the water cooling stuff

I'm aiming for something that will run Half Life 2 Lost Coast decently.

I see the PSU cable connected to the card.

About your liquid cooling system? Is it actually attached to your motherboard? I mean is it plugged in somewhere? Will my case support a liquid cooling system? I don't have any experiences with system overheating. All my computer has is a fan that emits a low humming noise. It seems to be doing its job. But this system seems more advance, and I'd like to prevent anything bad happening.

the typical way a water cooling system is set up is to run the power cord for the pump to your power supply strip that you have your monitor , speakers , and case plugged into . when you do this you want it setup so that there is no way to turn your comptuer on without having the pump running . i have a friend with water cooling that turned his computer on and forgot to turn the pump on . needless to say it wasnt pretty . that is why you want the pump ran to a plug that is live anytime you turn your power strip on .

water cooling is really no more dangerous than air cooling is when done right . this being your first build though i wouldnt even think about putting water cooling on your system . get some experience then think about water cooling . the case you have picked out for your computer is a little on the smallish side for water cooling but it would be very doable .

as far as heat goes in my system it probably actually runs hotter than alot of peoples high end air cooled rigs do . the big difference is my system is totally quiet where as air cooling can tend to get really loud with lots of case fans and such .

Ok. Cool. I guess the fan from the case/gpu/processor are enough. Well I guess thats it. Thanks you SO much, Hance. I'm pretty psyched, and scared. I hope everything goes well (no computer blowing up in my face). Thanks again. HL2/Doom 3 here I come! =)

your not a true computer geek until you let the magic smoke out of some high dollar computer part and say every swear word known to man kind when you do it . i have my share of them thats for sure . ran a screw driver through a motherboard while putting on a heat sink one time . had a 300 dollar processor go up in smoke another time . when you get all your parts post back here for advice on putting it all together .

i just had one other thought . did you get the retail or the oem processor ?
if you got the oem processor you will need to get a heatsink/fan combo if you got the retail processor it comes with a heatsink/fan so you dont need to worry about it .

300 dollor processor going up in smoke - ouch. Hopefully it wasn't a total lost. I mean, warranty. It could be replaced. What was the cause for it burning up (again anything to prevent a disaster - knowledge/tools all help)?

I'll definently come back again. I'm going to need all the help I can can get.

heat sinks used to attach with 2 small lugs on the socket that the processor goes in . one of those lugs snapped off for some unknown reason . processor up in smoke . oem cpu so it had a thirty day warranty . i was out 300 bucks. just one of the hazzards .

I changed the psu to the one you recommended, Paco. I got to read the reviews. All I saw was that it's 480 compared to 450 I had before. More is better, right? It should be later tonight that I order this system. Hopefully everything will be settled by then. I need to go to bed, though. Thanks a lot Hance, and Paco.

Knuckler I'd suggest getting that case with a more quality power supply, my personal favorite are the 450+ watt and better Antec Power True Blue PSU's. Also you can get that Corsair RAM cheaper and better here as 2x 1gig sticks, also it's CAS 2 (low latency) which I hear runs better with Socket 939 AthlonXP processors (due to built in memory controller).

Hance wrote:

your not a true computer geek until you let the magic smoke out of some high dollar computer part and say every swear word known to man kind when you do it .

How about having a Socket A motherboard, a brand new Duron 1.2ghz (high end, when your mowing lawns as your only income! lol) and having that burnt smell and a waft of smoke.. and then believing it'll be ok afterwards!

Last edited by NeXus^ on Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

About the PSU - I was initally leaning toward the PSU Paco recommended until a few reviews mentioned something about it being loud (air conditioner). But that was with the highest setting. The PSU LicketySplit recommended - it doesn't seem to meet the min requirement for the graphics card I have. It says it requires a PSU with a minimum of 450w.

Is that good enough? Will it attach to the motherboard, gpu, and the hard drive I have below.

I didn't catch what Hance said about the HDD link being messed up last night. Must have been tired. I originally had a "Western Digital Raptor 74GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 - OEM" as the Hard drive I wanted to get, but I think I want something cheaper. I really don't need all that speed. I was thinking of going with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148040

Will the hard drive be compatible with the motherboard, or processor I have. I'm not sure what it connects to.

In my current computer the hard drive has two cords. A long, and wide gray thin one that goes somewhere. The other cord that connects to the hard drive goes into the cd drive, which also goes somewhere else.

My question is, which be enough to power everything that needs power? Will this PSU be compatible with my motherboard?

Sorry for all the questions.

Edit -
I'll change the RAM to the one Nexus recommended. So when I get everything, I put one stick of ram in one of the black slots, and the other stick in one of the burgandy (red) slots to get that dual channel effect/thing?

The PSU i recommended is more than enough for what you need..it has 2 seperate 12v lines...look at the specs. The TT 480 would prolly run it and they are not loud..ive got 3 of them in systems of my own..very reliable for the money. Cheap generic PSU's suck..a good quality one with less v's than most of the cheap ones will outperform them without breaking a sweat..just make sure you get a good one.The Seasonic S-12 500w is a very good unit as is this one..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817153024

Just an old sheepdog waiting for some nasty wolves to show...ive got more than enough teeth left.

LicketySplit, I'm sorry. I really don't know how to read PSUs. All I saw was was that the gpu required a PSU with a minimum 450w. I saw on the SeaSonic 430w, and thought it wouldn't be enough. I guess I'll go with the Seasonic.

LicketySplit, I'm sorry. I really don't know how to read PSUs. All I saw was was that the gpu required a PSU with a minimum 450w. I saw on the SeaSonic 430w, and thought it wouldn't be enough. I guess I'll go with the Seasonic.

PSU requirements listed on graphics cards are sometimes a bit exaggerated, because there are a lot of crappy PSUs out there. Seasonic is a good brand, it will handily power your new system. You could probably even get by with something a bit smaller, like a 400w, but it never hurts to get more than you need for power.

hehe, actually my mother is helping to pay for it. I had to go to her with the price before I could order it. I couldn't go completely crazy getting stuff like SLI and such. That's why I was trying to do some cost cutting near the end (hdd/psu).

Hance said I should come when I get the parts for help how to setup it up.

Just remember that when you start putting it together...take deep breah...cross your fingers..and swear like a construction worker when it doesnt boot on the first clik...just kidding..you will be fine.

Just an old sheepdog waiting for some nasty wolves to show...ive got more than enough teeth left.

Looks like a good selection there Knuckler, even has the speaker system I have been craving for dammit which should be sweet listening to Doom3 with that, just remember to set it to 5.1 surround! Only catch with Half-Life 2 is online registration only (least thats what the demo I have uses), so no internet access, no Half Life 2 single player!

Good work ordering games along with it, otherwise no point in having a good gaming machine, if you have no money left and nothing to play! Yeah n good luck with the setup too Knuckler

I could smack you out of jeleousy .... But I wont, instead I will say everything bad that I can about it and give you suggestions

For one, I dont know what you mean about "Cutting Corners" you did order the most powerful Graphics Card on the market... You said you were cutting corners like not getting a PCI-E? Your video card is a PCI-E card, your motherboard selection DOES have a PCI-E 16x slot.

Like hance said, no worries about water cooling until youve gotten your LAN Legs??? (I dont know.. someone come up with a good thing to replace Sea Legs because that sure as hell wouldnt fit the situation) As for your proc, id say go with a 3500+ 939, as many others in the forums have said the 3500+ is a sweet spot for price and yet still performance. Most people dont have much more than a 3000-3200+ as they like to overclock (Dont worry about what they is ... youll learn about it soon enough if ya stick around on the forums )

A bit of advice... GROUND YOURSELF before touching ANY of your computers componants. Incase you dont know what this means... you touch someone metal, like your computer case, or a radiator. This will get rid of excessive static electricity from your body. Each computer componant has a certain amount of static or electrical resistance to it, ram is one of the weakest. If you pickup a stick of ram and you shock it, if enough shock was done to it you can permanently fry the ram, rendering it useless. So... GROUND

When you are putting your proccessor in youll see a little lever at the socket, the lever should be up while you are putting the CPU into the socket. Youll notice on one corner of the socket that there is a little triangluar notch where there isnt holes for pins. Around the rest of the socket it is a perfect square except that one side.. Look on the bottom of the CPU for the corner that doesnt continue making a square with the pins.. youll see what looks like there should be pins there. That matches with the corner on the socket I mentioned before. Like mentioned above you should NEVER have to worry about "plugging" the CPU into its socket. It will literally drop and you should feel no force what so ever. Once the CPU is sitting in its socket, you put the lever down gentle, the CPU will shift to one side and the proccessor will be locked into place.

Then the fun start with putting the thermal past on :O (Its preffrence to wether you like to put the past on before or after the CPU is in the socket) This is one of the most important steps, not having thermal paste, compound, or a thermal pad between your CPU and the Heat-Sink can cause a melt down. If you were to decided to put the CPU in the socket, and turn on your rig for 30 seconds (provided your proc didnt go up in smoke yet) you would be in for one hell of a fireworks show! Luckly, even if you wanted to do that most motherboard will not allow the system to start up unless their is a CPU fan detected plugged into the mobo (motherboard).

As for your power to your perhpials (Cd-Rom, Floppy, Anything that needs power) all of those devices take 4 pin Molex connectors. Depending on your power supply you will have 4 or so of them. When plugging them into case fans, most fans have an extra plug that once power goes to the fan you can plug another device into the one that leads off of the fan.

Im done with my rant, but allow me to say this. If you are at all in doubt about how to do something, espcially assembling your new rig, dont hesitate to ask us at TR for some help. I dont want to hear that you got all of that nice hardware thrown into a case and celebrated a late 4th of July or something

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

ust remember that when you start putting it together...take deep breah...cross your fingers..and swear like a construction worker when it doesnt boot on the first clik...just kidding..you will be fine.

One very important thing ro remember when setting up a rig, is to NEVER force the CPU into the socket. It should just drop right in.

Thanks for the tip, HL2. I'll definently keep that in mind when installing it.

Fubbhead, I'm going to use the one I have now - NEC Multisync 5FGp. Hopefully it'll be enough.

Thanks Nexus. Since I got a cheaper HDD, I decided to spend a little more. Bought Battlefield 2 (very nice graphics), and Final Fantasy XI. I already have the latter for PS2 - just wanted to enjoy it in Hi-RES. Now that I bought everything, I'm not so sure I'll get the audio experience everybody else gets. My computer desk sucks, cause it broke while bringing it upstairs, so I had to improvise a bit... Maybe I could get away with leaving the speakers on the floor?

*Big smile* @ Welch. By cutting corners, I meant for the hard drive and PSU. Initially I didn't realize how important the PSU was. I thought anyone would do. That was up till Paco and LicketySplit posted. About the HDD. I initially had selected one with 10k RPM. I thought that was a bit too much. I'm SOME WHAT content with my current hdd (5200 RPM / 8 gig capactiy). I felt it was too much, and that something less would be best. So I went with the Seagate 80 gig 7200 RPM. In the other areas (graphics and sound), I tried to go all out as best I could. My hobby is programming. I like to make simple sound and opengl graphics programs that displays features of a card. I'm also big on gaming, and I'm not repeating the same mistakes I did before when I my parents bought our first computer. It's not upgradable friendly. Could only upgrade the ram to 256, and get a Geforce 2. Can't upgrade the processor or motherboard. Only has 2 pci slots. It was great when it first came out. I didn't know much about pcs then. And the PC Richards rep said it was the top of the line. Over the years, it became more and more apparent that a new computer was needed. So now here I am =)

PSU requirements listed on graphics cards are sometimes a bit exaggerated, because there are a lot of crappy PSUs out there. Seasonic is a good brand, it will handily power your new system. You could probably even get by with something a bit smaller, like a 400w, but it never hurts to get more than you need for power.

Klyith - something did seem wrong about the power consumption listed. In the TR review for the 7800 http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q2/ge ... ex.x?pg=26 it only uses 240 watts at load. But those were reference boards. And I heard evga overclocked their board. I wasn't really sure who to believe, so I tried to go with the minimum watt voltage suggested by evga. Thanks for clearing that up (about the exaggeration and crappy psus).

Here's another that gives the basics...just dont get too excited and forget the most important part...plugging it in Nuthin like doin your own for the first time and having the baby boot and run like a timex..good times..and there will be times when youre ready to throw up your hands and say screw it..just think it thru..and you will be fine

hahaha -I'm half expecting something like that to happen =)
/me has a lot of ditzy moments
After installing a gpu, I turned on the computer and was like "WTF! WHY ISN'T ANYTHING DISPLAYED?" Didn't have the cable from the monitor connected to the gpu =(